The present invention relates to stringed musical instruments, particularly to such instruments having an electronic interface.
Musical instruments having electronic signal interfaces are well known. One such interface is an analog signal interface, which provides a faithful analog signal representation of the sound generated by the instrument. Another commonly used interface of more recent origin is the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI). The MIDI interface provides for the exchange of digital signals in accordance with a standardized protocol. MIDI interfaces are common on musical instruments such as keyboards and six string guitars.
Other musical instruments, however, such as double stringed instruments, have not been provided with MIDI interfaces.
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a stringed instrument is provided incorporating several novel aspects.
In a first aspect, the present invention provides a novel bridge which allows the arrangement thereon of piezoelectric pickups in closely spaced groups, such as pairs.
In a further aspect, the present invention provides a novel piezoelectric pickup which can be arranged collinearly with the chord with which it makes contact. This allows for a compact arrangement with closely spaced strings.
In yet a further aspect, the pickups can be coupled to a signal processing device in one of several arrangements that allow for the generation of MIDI and analog signal representations of the string vibrations. In accordance with the present invention, the number of strings and pickups can exceed the number of signal inputs of the signal processing device.
In a further embodiment, the present invention provides a double stringed instrument having octave tuning with a MIDI interface. The present invention can be applied to any double stringed instruments that have the same tuning in unison or in octave, such as the bouzouki, the mandolin, the twelve string guitar, the oud and the saz.